The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 141

Chapter 141: Every Opportunity Lies in Careful Observation

The father and son exchanged knowing smiles, and without hesitation, they set off.

As they exited the workshop, Joseph was about to head towards the marble courtyard when he saw Louis XVI turning towards the tea room.

He quickly followed and, perplexed, asked, “Father, aren’t we heading to the shooting range?”

“Indeed,” Louis XVI nodded. “While they prepare the carriage, we might as well have a cup of tea, enjoy some snacks, and perhaps change clothes.”

Joseph then remembered the royal carriage, weighing a massive 1.5 tons, and all the necessary travel equipment. It would take at least 40 minutes to prepare everything properly.

He quickly stopped Louis XVI, saying, “Dear father, this time you’re going as a master gunsmith to inspect your own creations. You needn’t bother with all the formalities. How about we just take my carriage instead?”

Louis XVI blinked, considering this. "A gunsmith, huh? That sounds quite interesting, and has a certain style to it."

He followed the advice, changing into simpler clothes and heading directly out of the Palace of Versailles. He climbed into his son's grey-black carriage.

The King's Guard, upon seeing the royal carriage move, exchanged confused glances. Hastily, they scrambled to mount their horses and followed closely behind.

After driving a short distance, Louis XVI began to complain. “Joseph, this carriage of yours is terribly bumpy... I should have waited for my own carriage to be ready.”

Joseph, somewhat puzzled, replied, “Doesn’t your carriage bump as well?”

“Yes, but mine is equipped with more than a dozen sets of springs beneath the frame,” Louis XVI, the ‘techie’, casually explained the design of his carriage.

“Springs for shock absorption?!” Joseph was taken aback. He had been thinking about inventing this very thing, but never expected it to already be in use. “Who made your carriage?”

“The workshop that customizes carriages for the royal court.”

Joseph wasted no time in learning more details and found out that shock-absorbing spring-equipped carriages had been around for decades.

However, the springs were still handmade, and as a result, their production was low, and their quality was hard to guarantee. A spring for a carriage could cost 30 livres and would often break down, requiring replacement every two or three months.

This meant that a carriage equipped with shock-absorbing springs could easily cost over a thousand livres, with the king’s specially customized version being even more expensive.

Naturally, people were hesitant to use such carriages—besides the high cost, their fragile nature and the troublesome maintenance were significant deterrents.

Joseph, however, smiled as he thought, "So expensive, huh? It seems that there’s always an opportunity if you pay attention to the details."

Why insist on using springs for shock absorption when simple leaf springs could resolve the issue? It looked like he could develop a carriage business of his own.

If he’d known how valuable these things were, he would have gotten to work on it sooner, sparing himself a few more months of discomfort.

South of Paris, in the police academy’s training grounds, all the instructors and cadets were filled with excitement and anticipation because, suddenly, the King himself had arrived.

Louis XVI, accompanied by senior police academy officials, kindly smiled and nodded at the cadets. He then leaned toward Joseph and whispered, “I can hardly believe you’ve built such a large military academy!”

Joseph quickly corrected him with a smile, “Ah, it’s a police academy, training officers for the force.”

Louis XVI gestured to the neatly organized troops of the Bertier Regiment in the distance. “Aren’t they soldiers?”

Joseph, not wanting to hide anything from his father, replied, “Actually, I’ve trained a small army to test out some military reforms. They occasionally come here for training.”

“Military reforms?” Louis XVI laughed. “Is it like the reforms that Marquis de Louvois made?”

Marquis de Louvois was Louis XIV’s Minister of War, responsible for leading military reforms that significantly boosted the French army's combat effectiveness. It could be said that the Sun King’s renown was earned largely by Louvois’s army.

However, Louis XVI did not truly believe that his fourteen-year-old son could pull off significant military reforms.

Joseph only replied vaguely, “Ah, somewhat similar.”

“I’m truly proud of you, my son!” Louis XVI exclaimed.

As he spoke, they arrived at the shooting range, and his eyes lit up. He quickened his pace.

By the time he reached a row of dirt walls spanning over a hundred meters, an instructor had already set up more than ten humanoid wooden targets 40 paces away.

One pace was roughly one meter, so 40 paces equaled around 26 meters.

Knowing that the King would be shooting, the instructor had set the targets closer to avoid any potential embarrassment if the King missed.

Louis XVI, eager to get started, immediately took the flintlock rifle and ammunition bag from his attendant. He quickly loaded the gun, packed the powder, inserted the lead ball, and prepared the gun. After that, he primed it with a percussion cap.

The whole process was very practiced, indicating that he had performed the loading and firing steps many times in preparation for creating this rifle.

With a loud “bang,” the bullet fired, grazing the wooden target’s shoulder.

The surrounding instructors and attendants immediately exclaimed in admiration, but the attention of Froyent, Dubois, and the others was clearly focused on the peculiar gun.

Joseph, noticing the intrigued expressions of the men, smiled at Dubois. “Major Dubois, would you like to challenge the King to a shooting speed competition?”

Dubois, who had served for over ten years and was one of the fastest shooters at the academy, looked at Louis XVI, who was eager to compete. He placed a hand on his chest and nodded. “As you wish, Your Highness.”

He took a Charleville 1776 model flintlock and hung the ammunition bag at his waist.

Joseph then called out, “Begin!”

The two competitors sprang into action. Dubois’s movements were clearly faster; he poured the powder into the barrel, used the ramrod to tamp it down, and loaded the ball. By the time Louis XVI had finished loading the powder, Dubois was already ahead.

Dubois led all the way. As he reached for the powder flask to ignite the priming pan, Louis XVI was still in the process of tamping the lead ball into the barrel.

However, as Dubois pulled back the hammer and aimed his gun, he heard the sound of Louis XVI cocking the hammer beside him.

Suddenly, he was shocked. This meant the King was only a mere two seconds slower than him!

He had been practicing this procedure for over ten years and could perform it with his eyes closed. Yet, the King, who only used a gun while hunting and usually had servants load it for him, was only slightly slower!

Both guns fired two seconds apart. The others present, except for the King and his son, widened their eyes in disbelief.

Dubois bowed to Louis XVI and, staring at the flintlock in his hands, asked, “Your Majesty, if I may be so bold, could I take a closer look at your rifle?”

“Of course.” Louis XVI handed over the gun and even thoughtfully gave him a percussion cap. “You’ll need this to fire.”

Joseph then picked up another flintlock and began explaining how it worked to Dubois.

When Dubois learned that this gun eliminated the need to pour powder into the priming pan, reducing the number of steps by three, he became so excited that his breath quickened. “Your Majesty, may I fire a shot to try it out?”

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